The breadcrumbs could also be roasted without sugar, but in this case you will miss on the caramel flavor. For the calorie conscious people among us there is the possibility of roasting the breadcrumbs without butter.

This recipe also works well with other fillings like apricots, plums or chocolate. In Austria we also fill dumplings with "Mozartkugeln", which are little balls of chocolate, nougat and almond paste. It is reasonable to use the fruits of the respective season, since they are fresh and cheap. If you use apricots or plums as a filling, you can add a pinch of cinnamon to the sugar before mixing it with the breadcrumbs. If you serve dumplings with a chocolate filling, garnish them with chocolate sauce and ground walnuts.

It is a good idea to serve the dumplings with ice cream (preferably vanilla flavor), garnished with fresh berries and a mint leaf.

Enjoying a glass of cold milk together with the dumplings is especially refreshing in the summer months. In Austria it is also common to serve sweet dishes with a cup of coffee.

Curd cheese dough only tastes well with sweet fillings. For savory dumplings, which are very popular in Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic, use potato dough and no breadcrumbs.

Strawberry dumplings are a typically Austrian dish usually served as a main course, rather than as a dessert. Sweet dishes as main courses are very common in Austria and especially popular with children and vegetarians, since the Austrian cuisine is heavy on meat dishes like "Schweinsbraten" (roast pork), "Wienerschnitzel" or "Speckknödel" (dumplings filled with bacon), and has only little to offer for people who don’t like meat. There are many variations of sweet and savory dumplings, especially when it comes to the fillings. A specialty of Salzburg, for example, are the "Mozartknödel": cream cheese dumplings with a "Mozartkugel" as filling. Savory dumplings can be filled with minced meat, greaves or bacon and are usually served with sauerkraut and gravy.

For an amateur cook, the above recipe is recommendable if he needs a tasteful, quick, and easy to prepare dish for, say, an evening with his parents-in-law; they will certainly be impressed by his cooking skills. Cooking strawberry dumplings is relatively easy, but of course it can only be perfected by practice. If you have grown tired of strawberry dumplings, just vary the filling and use other fruits of your choice.

Always use fresh, ripe strawberries, as they taste much sweeter than the ones you can buy in the supermarket. Also consider picking strawberries yourself; this way you can choose the ripe and fresh ones and get the size you need for the dumplings. Moreover, you can try a few while picking. In Austria you can do this in June on several privately owned strawberry fields. Use the spare strawberries for cooking jam. Since they go bad within a few days, remember to use strawberries immediately after picking